Easier To Trace Cattle Than Children
- Published: 25 January 2011
IPPN Director Seán Cottrell, in his address to 1,000 primary school Principals at Citywest Hotel will comment:
‘Every calf, cow and bull in the state is registered by the Department of Agriculture and Food in the interests of food traceability. Why isn’t the same tracking technology in place to capture the health, education and care needs of every child?’
The Department of Education and Skills (DES) does not have a central database of primary school pupils or an integrated system in place to trace the progress of individual children as they move through the Irish Education System.
‘A database of primary school children would enable funding to be targeted at those children with specific educational, health and care needs. Information about children’s economic background is available from the Department of Social Welfare, but this is not integrated with information about individual children in specific schools. Certain schools are designated as ‘disadvantaged’, rather than individual children. Are we absolutely sure the resources are going to the right places?’ stated Mr Cottrell.
Using similar technology, the New Zealand Ministry of Education gathers data on every child relating to their level of socio-economic disadvantage, special needs and language support needs. This enables a fair and equitable system of allocating resources to schools. The Irish model uses subjective information to determine whether a school is disadvantaged or not. As there is no database, information from social welfare and the CSO cannot be used to provide a more accurate profile of disadvantage levels of individual children in each school.
ENDS
Related Statements:
School Administration Still Paper-based
The Department of Education and Skills has been very slow in introducing technology for general administration purposes. Traditional roll books and registers, designed in the 1930s, are still required by the DES. This is in spite of the fact that most schools are using computers to record and analyse attendance data. IPPN has repeatedly requested the DES to provide 21st century technology for school administration. Unlike second-level schools, no such provision has been made for primary schools.
